How to spot the difference between performative and functional professionalism

What you wear in the office matters…to a certain extent.

Workplace cultures have become more flexible with how employees dress in the office, but there’s still an important distinction HR can make between performative and functional professionalism which affects how employees show up to work, said Bree Groff, author of Today Was Fun: A Book About Work (Seriously).

Groff shared more about her book with HR Brew—read on for what she had to say for a lesson in performance.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What will HR pros learn from your book?

Some of the topics that I dive into, one is about debunking the notion of professionalism. When we think about “performative professionalism,” that’s the suits, and the ties, and the fancy decks, and the business jargon. It’s all these ways in which we need to show up in our “business masks” that often get in the way of what we know makes for a productive and happy culture, so things like psychological safety or just simply camaraderie, like having a work best friend…How we can prioritize people feeling like they don’t have to exhale at the end of the day because they’ve been keeping it professional all day long?

We should like the people that we’re spending our days with, and so how can we create a feeling not just of being collegial, but of real camaraderie in teams? And I use the term “cozy teams” in the book…What I’m trying to do with the book is to help re-humanize the workplace from cultures that can sometimes feel very I have to show up in a certain way in order to succeed to I’m having a good time at work because I’m doing it among friends. I’m doing my most brilliant work because I feel welcome to share my ideas.

How can HR help employees take off those business masks?

Starting to recognize and distinguish between what is performative professionalism and what is functional professionalism. So, performative professionalism are things like you look the part, you sound the part, and this is where all the biases come into play…As opposed to functional professionalism: Do you do high-quality work? Do you do it on time?...None of that has anything to do with the fabric that you happen to be wearing.

There’s an exercise in the book that leads people, and certainly HR teams or people teams, through that exercise of, what about our current culture, our current norms, are a little bit performative, that might make people feel like there’s only one right way of being a leader? And then how do we start to detach from some of that?

Start modeling that behavior. A CHRO, or somebody who is on that executive team, if they can show up once in a while in their exercise pants, because they’re going to go run to the gym right after work, and they don’t want to sacrifice their health for having nice slacks on. That’s amazing, and it starts to model what it is to be a human at work. A CHRO, or somebody who is on that executive team, if they can show up once in a while in their exercise pants...That's amazing, and it starts to model what it is to be a human at work. I think [small, minute things] have an oversized impact. Even the way you're sitting around a conference table, if you want to sit with your legs folded...create a sort of subtext that we are humans. We have bodies.

Why is this important for HR to prioritize now?

Having fun is a rebellion in and of itself…It’s very easy, and totally understandable, to feel distraught, and down, and like it’s hard to get out of bed, and do your little piece of work in the world when so many bigger things are happening…Some days won’t be fun and some days will be overwhelming, but I really I think if people want to create their version of a kinder, more successful, more equitable world, I think that first starts by fueling yourself with a sense of sustainability, with a sense of, I know I have value.

In a society, especially in the US, and certainly in New York where I am, people come to feel like their worth is equated with their economic output. And in a time where the economic uncertainty of the world is feeling very unstable…I feel like reclaiming, even in your own community, or even smaller, even in your own five-person team, a sense of joy, of fun, of levity, of autonomy, that we can make the world better right here right now…I think that’s really a very powerful way to move through bigger systemic issues. To me, it’s not flippant. To me, notions of fun and joy, it’s actually really galvanizing and makes meaning out of what we do every day.